Austrian bank Erste Bank und Sparkassen is the first financial institution in the country to implement the new regulation on providing more convenience to customers and to allow them open accounts from their homes just using any of their identity documents and talking to the bank official via the video chat.

This year on January 3 Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) effected the new regulation approving video-based identification for new customers of banks. Customers starting the process of opening a new account may identify themselves using the video connection with the bank employee which saves the time for physical visit to any of the bank locations.

In order to open a new account customer uploads the picture on any of their identity documents and send it to Erste Bank after which they have a video talk with a bank representative to finish their identification thanks to IDnow Video-Ident technology.

Spokesperson for Austrian bank noted that Erste Bank is the first bank in Austria with this new innovative offering which comes just three weeks after the adoption of the new regulation by FMA. He adds that implementation of this feature means that it is no longer an advantage of fintech only companies as before the new rules were introduced banks had not been permitted to offer such kind of identification for registration purposes.

The service can be accessed by customers seven days a week and can be used to open current and student accounts. The bank announced that more services may be applied for later during this year.